Institute facilities and manpower

The ideal training institute:

• Should ensure that the care of patients is maintained at a suitably high standard, and that the workload is sufficient, to permit the Institute to comply with the requirements of training to become a Paediatric Cardiologist. For training in a subspecialty of Paediatric Cardiology, such as cardiac catheterisation, advanced imaging, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, nuclear medicine, fetal cardiology, and so on, trainees may need to move to another institute for this part of the training module to ensure they obtain the training required according to the recommendations made by the Association for Training in Paediatric Cardiology.
• The department of Paediatric Cardiology within the institute should have access to all types of specialized facilities for imaging needed for evaluation of congenital and acquired cardiac defects as seen from the fetus to adulthood.
• Should have the infrastructure for the assessment and treatment of patients with congenital and acquired cardiovascular disease from fetal life to adults, including paediatric cardiovascular surgery.
• Should have specialists representing all aspects of paediatric cardiology, including imaging, invasive cardiology and electrophysiology, paediatric cardiac surgery, paediatric anaesthesiology, and paediatric cardiac intensive care.
• Should have staff providing the minimum of 3 full-time equivalent paediatric cardiologists.
• Should be equipped with at least one laboratory for cardiac catheterisation with facilities for catheterisation, angiocardiography, interventional procedures, and electrophysiologic studies for infants and children, as described in the recommendations made by the Association for Ideal Cardiac Catheterisation Laboratories.
• To ensure the quality of the training institute, the institute should be peer reviewed at regular intervals by a national or an international organisation.